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From the top of the hill, where she had once talked under the trees with Bintang, the kampong where his grandmother lived appeared to be quite close by, and the route down to it straightforward.
But once Jasmine started to descend the hillside, she could no longer see her destination clearly. There was no obvious footpath at all in places, as well as merging and diverging paths. The lower down she got, the hotter it became, particularly in the stretches without much tree cover and sweat poured down her back. The large bag she was carrying on her back was heavy, slowing her progress further. Her only consolation was that she had decided to leave her satchel behind. That had been an easy decision as she had no intention of sketching this morning. In fact she couldn’t imagine ever wantin
